Google sex expose is further proof the valley has made it (the good stuff’s at the beginning)

This Business Insider post about sex and power at Google is just the sort of thing I was talking about when I wrote that the valley was surely back because it had taken center stage in the world of pop culture, vacuous trivia and salacious rumor-mongering.

But we really should not be wasting our time reading this stuff.

OK, I did. All of it. And it’s really long. But it’s my job, right?

Otherwise, I mean, who wants to read about Googlers having sex in nap rooms and in “offices lit only by passion and the glow of multiple monitor screens,” as the Biz Insider says, quoting early Google guy Doug Edwards’ book, “I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee No. 59.”

I mean, not that I paid much attention to any of that. We really shouldn’t dignify it, right?

And before you get all hot and bothered, you should know that the blog post doesn’t name names. It doesn’t even name the names of the people who are not naming names.

Oh and all the good parts are at the beginning of the article. And by that, I mean, all the parts about sex, which we really shouldn’t be wasting our time with.

The last part of the story (boring) is all about how Google has cut-throat people working there, who can be really mean and undercut their competition to get ahead in the company and blah, blah, blah.

It’s all about how people at Google fight and play favorites and promote people for the wrong reasons etc. (Which means other than the free food, lavish salaries, cushy work spaces, free rides to work, 20 percent time, stock options, nap pods, free bikes and a few other things, I could very well be working at Google.)

Anyway, a cynic would say, “Hey wait. You mean you’ve got this company that skews heavily just-out-of-college (or still in college) and they’re having sex? No!

As the Biz Insider post points out, quoting one of the unnamed people who doesn’t name names:

“‘In a place like Google, which has strong technical talent as well as business talent, it’s very natural that people are going to be attracted to one another. You have amazing combinations of intelligence and wit in one place. You can’t fight that people are going to be attracted to each other.'”

“Facebook,” this insider insists, “is exactly the same.”

Which is to say that if you’re looking for that sort of work environment, you’ve got choices.

Of the power struggles at Google detailed in the second part of the article, that same cynic might say, “Hey wait. You pack a company with incredibly aggressive, relatively arrogant and fairly brilliant people and they are clawing each other to shreds to get ahead? You’ve got to be kidding me!

But it’s true. Google is apparently all about love and war. And isn’t it really the same with life?